Page 198 of Blood Feast

Finally, Lyros’s voice lost its commanding edge. “Cassia, you’d best leave Knight here. Levitation is key to our survival. He won’t fare well on the ground against fire mages. I wish Mak and I could ward him, but it will take all our power to protect the four of us from a full war circle of Aithourians.”

She crouched and hugged her dog. “You’re right. He’ll be much safer here, and Dame won’t be alone.”

She murmured commands and pleas to Knight, and at last he stretched out beside Dame. Lio drew a bit of comfort from the sight the two hounds together.

While Cassia and Mak retrieved their weapons, Lio set out food and water for the dogs. He gave Dame another dose of his blood, but true to his fears, that did nothing to wake her.

“Keep an eye on her for me, will you, boy?” he asked, rubbing Knight’s ears one more time in farewell.

Lio joined the others outside the tower, where Mak and Lyros stood holding hands with their weapons at the ready.

Cassia offered Lio his staff. “I’ll show you the temple.”

Images, smells, and magical imprints took shape in her mind. A stone face. Magefire. Miranda’s arcane scent as the Lustra understood it.

Lio took the invitation, drawing so near in their Grace Union that she flushed. Her emotions slipped through to him, interlaced with her thoughts. More than the hurt and anger he had expected. Fear. For him.

Wrapping his arm around her waist, he pulled her back against his chest. He ran his hand down his braid in her hair. Her face was turned away from him, but she leaned into his touch as if it were pure reflex.

The four of them stepped, arriving in a copse of cypresses that provided good cover. Between the tall trees, Lio glimpsed a structure built in a style of the Great Temple Era, with fluted columns and a peaked roof.

Cassia knelt and ran her fingers over the trees’ fallen needles. Lio couldn’t see or sense anything, but she said with certainty, “Miranda hid here on her approach.”

“Can you tell where she is now?” Lio asked.

Cassia shook her head. “I know she’s here, but not precisely where. If I sense her close, I’ll warn you all.”

“That’s the best we can do,” Lyros said.

“Stay as safe as you can, everyone,” Mak bade them. “May the Goddess shield us.”

Lio spun thelemantic veils around them, the last advantage of surprise he could give them. It wouldn’t last long.

They shot into the air on a burst of levitation. As they rose past the tops of the cypresses, the temple’s many flames shone in Lio’s eyes. Braziers of magefire lit the spaces between the columns. Lyros had been right. This place was a firetrap for Hesperines.

They swept upward. The temple’s frieze flew by, carved scenes of the Mage King’s victorious battle playing out as they passed. Lio landed lightly on the rooftop. He had crafted his veils so well that he couldn’t hear the others’ feet touch the stone around him.

In a crouch, Lyros darted along the roof, and they followed. When they were only a few paces away from the back edge of the temple, he halted and pointed down.

Cassia crouched on the peak of the roof, her fingertips splayed on the stone.

What do you sense?Lio asked.Is this a Lustra site?

I’ve never felt anything like this. It’s so much more complex than the tower. Can you feel the spell weavings?

All I can sense is magefire. Will you show me?

She pressed her lips together. But her mind opened to him, and he sank into her again.

Their heartbeats blurred together, and the backs of his eyes pulled. The world shifted to the left. Suddenly he could see their surroundings from Cassia’s position.

Gazing out of her eyes, he beheld the magic. It held the temple together, glowing from between the stones. It drew him down,deep down, until he tapped a lush chasm somewhere in the earth. He thought he might go spinning into that darkness, not knowing if it were a grave or the place where all seeds were born.

Cassia pulled him back, centering him in her.It’s another letting site.

Lio sucked in a breath, pulling his awareness back into his own body.Goddess. It’s as if the Lustra itself is nourishing those magefires.

Ebah and Lucian’s magics are completely unified here. The tower feels like an early experiment. This temple feels like the result.

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